Kyoto
We arrived in Kyoto in the afternoon and it was HOT!Summer in Japan (particularly in June / July) seems to entail cloudy skies but hot and humid temperatures (don't think it ever made it under 28 degrees while we were in Kyoto and, to be honest, I am fine with that).
Above is a large Buddist temple that was right next to our hotel, we walked past it most days.
Once we arrived in Kyoto we set off to do a little exploring, we happened to go to the train station in search of Ramen as there is a whole Ramen Street (Kyoto Ramen Kaji) on the tenth story of the Kyoto train station.
It was the best ramen I have ever eaten in my life - and ordered from a vending machine!
What we didn't know was that the train station would be really cool!
This photo was taken from the 'sky deck' which is roughly 10-11 stories above ground, on the top of the Kyoto train station. A very pretty and unexpected viewing spot! On the right is Kyoto Tower, the tallest building in Kyoto.
Another nice view, also in the train station. Michael kind of just looks like a dark shadow but I still like it!
While roaming around the train station, we also stumbled upon Kyoto Station Daikaidan (Great Staircase) - this is a huge light up staircase and it is awesome! It not only lights up but plays different animations (pictures, words, logos etc.).
I also took some videos of Kyoto Daikaidan (Great Staircase) in Kyoto Station:
Video two: https://youtu.be/rZmffX2_NAo
One last photo of Kyoto Tower, which looks really nice when it is lit up at night.
Arashiyama
Time for some day trips to the outer suburbs of Kyoto!We started by going to Arashiyama, a small suburb in the west of Kyoto, which is apparently very popular with tourists. Our first stop here included a visit to the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, which is a pretty unique type of attraction I have never visited before.
The above photo was taken on my GoPro - I was trying to capture just how tall the bamboo was but not sure how well it really worked with the fish eye lens.
The photos don't really do the bamboo grove justice, they were HUGE and they don't look nearly as impressive in the photos.
After walking through the bamboo grove, we found ourselves on the banks of the Hozu River, which is the main river that runs through Arashiyama.
The river is really beautiful and quiet.
There were lots of little tourist boats cruising along the river and the local guides were paddling / steering the boat with huge sticks of bamboo.
Our next stop, also in Arashiyama, was Monkey Park Iwatayama.
This was only about a 15 min walk from the river, but once we arrived, it was about a 20 min walk straight uphill to reach the monkey park - it was hot work but worth it :-)
The monkey park is really fun! The monkeys roam around free range and completely do not care about the presence of humans. They are really chill and won't approach you but also are not bothered about walking really close by humans, some even put their little hands out to ask for food (you can buy monkey food and feed them) but they were sweet non-stealing monkeys!
In this shot, I was trying to showcase the free range nature of the park, with the monkeys all just roaming around among the visitors.
While we were there, one of the guides came around and threw monkey food into the centre of the park and the monkeys all went a little wild over the food (see video below).
Money's being fed: https://youtu.be/mS1QCZt-BS0
There were also lots of very cute baby monkeys!
I also took a video of my favourite monkey (below), who, despite the food being distributed at least 15 mins earlier, could not stop going around and hunting for scraps!
This monkey could not stop eating: https://youtu.be/33Xcr4QMKnw
This monkey could not stop eating: https://youtu.be/33Xcr4QMKnw
Kitayama
After having fun with some cool monkeys, we walked a lonnnnnng way to get to Kinkakuji (Golden Temple), which is located in the north of Kyoto.After the long walk, we thought it only seemed fair to treat ourselves.
This is a black sesame ice cream - it's my new favourite flavour!
Now, the main attraction: Kinkakuji (Golden Temple).
Kinkakuji is a buddist temple that is covered in gold leaves (literally, gold) - because of its glitz (literally) it is a very famous attraction in Kyoto (like I said, Shrines everywhere!).
The temple sits on a really pretty lake and is surrounded by a lovely zen garden, which we also
walked around (we did a lot of walking!). It was definitely designed to cater for bus loads of tourists as there was a one way path past the temples and through the gardens and we found ourselves just wandering along with the crowds - we were out of there in like 20 mins (this really does reflect the efficiency of Japan).
Once we were back in Kyoto, it was time for more sushi train!
Hiroshima, Miyajima and Osaka
For our next day in Kyoto we lined up an epic day trip (and by epic I mean long and with a lot of train travel haha).
We got on a train at Kyoto station and made our way to Hiroshima, which is about 2 hours away from Kyoto (Michael fell asleep on the train).
Our first stop was a visit to the Atomic Bomb (A Bomb) Dome.
I am sure that most people know that towards the end of WWII, August 25th, 1945, America dropped the first ever atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.
America decided to drop the bomb on this particular city because of it's large circumference and because they believed that there were no American POWs being held in this location (they were wrong about that).
The bomb went off approximately 600m above the city of Hiroshima, which happened to be almost directly above this building (about 160m off centre of this building) , everyone inside the building died instantly but somehow a large portion of the building remained intact. The city of Hiroshima decided to preserve this building as a symbol of remembrance and as a reminder of the destructive power of atomic weapons.
It was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1996.
The A Bomb Dome is located in the Peace Memorial Park, which, as the name suggests, is centered around the promotion of peace and prevention of atomic warfare. It features some beautiful gardens and fountains through, as well as monuments dedicated to those lost due to the atomic bomb.
The A Bomb Dome (right of picture) sits on the Motoyasu River.
Above is the Children's Peace Monument.
This was created by school children and designed in honour of Sadako Sasaki and all of the other children who died or were impacted by the atomic bomb. This young girl was 2 years old at the time of the bombing, she survived the initial blast but was effected by the radiation, developing and succumbing to leukemia at the age of 11.
This incredibly sad story led her classmates to create this monument.
The Cenotaph for A Bomb Victims (also known as The Memorial Monument of Hiroshima).
The names of all the people who lost their lives due to the atmomic bomb are inscribed in the central stone vault - there are over 290, 000 names. While thousands of people died instantly, or soon after the bomb was dropped, many also succumbed to radiation related illnesses soon after (which appeared to be absolutely horrific), with many also developing horrible diseases later in life.
We also visited the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims. This was a small museum dedicated to honouring the memory of all lost on the day of the bomb and afterwards. This moment was located at front, it's designed as a clock, which reads 8:16, the time the bomb was detonated. Surrounding the clock are all fragments of buildings / structures that were collected in the wake of the explosion.
This museum was interesting but very sad. We watched a film in which survivors told their stories about what happened on the day of the bombing, many survivors were parents and told stories about losing their children the day - it was really difficult to watch but very powerful and an important reminder of the horrific and destructive force of atomic weapons.
We also visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, however I didn't take any photos as it was an incredibly (and understandable) sombre exhibit.
This museum detailed the history of Hiroshima before and after the bomb blast, contained an exhibit on the destruction caused by the bombing (it was quite graphic) but, most of all, the museum attempts to promote a global movement of nuclear disarmament and long lasting world peace.
This was quite a difficult part of history to learn about but thoroughly necessary and I would definitely recommend a visit.
After quite a heavy morning, we decided to wind down a little and get some lunch.
We had decided that we definitely needed to try some traditional food from Hiroshima: Okonomiyaki. This is quite literally a savoury pancake cooked on an iron hot plate but it's very different to what we, in Australia, call a 'Japanese pancake' (although we have definitely westernised the idea).
They make the pancake in front of you, which you can see in my pictures and the end result is a delightful pancake lunch, which you literally eat from the hot top. I don't remember the name of the sauce that was put on top but it was amazing!
Once we had finished lunching in Hiroshima, we got on another train, even further south, this time we were destined for Miyajima.
After arriving in Miyajima (about half an hour from Hiroshima) we then boarded a ferry for Miyajima Island - I do love a ferry!
On arrival, we were greeted by some super friendly deer - this poser was loving the attention. Later on, one of them tried to steal my ice cream (unsuccessfully) and then tried to steal another couple's lunch (successfully).
Miyajima Island (which translates to 'shrine island') is home to the Itsukushima Shrine, a part of which is the famous Great Torii - a shrine built in the water. Yep, more shrines!
Unfortunately, it was under construction while we were there, which detracted a little from the attraction.
Apparently, at low tide, the water recedes enough for people to actually walk under the shrine, but it was well and truly at sea while we were there.
We also checked out The Five Story Pagado (that is literally the name), which is a Buddhist Shrine. You can see it all the way from the mainland and it's very impressive up close.
Our final stop before returning to Kyoto was Osaka.
The famous Dotonburi street in Osaka - almost as mad as Tokyo!
This is one of the most famous streets in Osaka, known for restaurants with crazy bright lights and huge animals (that they are serving) located above each restaurant. It was EXTREMELY crowded.
Some of the signs above the restaurants on Dotonburi Street.
The whole street, and all the restaurants, were jam packed with tourists - it was a little overwhelming and crowds of tourists are really not our thing, so we opted for a quieter dinner elsewhere in Osaka before heading back to Kyoto.
Kyoto
For our final full day in Kyoto we stayed local (kind of).We caught the train a little south of Kyoto to Inari to visit Fushimi Inari Shrine (another one!).
Behind us is the entrance to the shrine through a torii (this is just the name for the giant gates that mark the entrance to a shrine - it took me almost two weeks to work that out out).
Fushimi Inari Shrine is a Shinto shrine which is famous for its thousands of brightly coloured red / orange torri gates (their website calls them vermillion in colour haha).
The gates (toriis) surround a range of different trails, all of which are located behind the main buildings.
As you can see from the above photos, there were a LOT of people visiting!
Fortunately, as the trails lead into the woods, they start going uphill and climb Mt Inari. A lot of stairs always means less tourists (as people are inherently lazy), which was great news for us as it meant that we only had to climb a few sets of stairs before the crowds really thinned out!
We even had this section of the train to ourselves (for all of about one minute haha).
We ended up walking about halfway up the mountain before coming back down - it may not look it from the photos but it was a really hot day and Michael is definitely not a fan of heat combined with humidity!
Sorry for all the photos - it was such a unique and beautiful location, hard to take a bad photo!
After spending some time exploring in Inari, we caught the train back to Kyoto and walked along the main river in the city: The Kamo River.
It was a beautiful sunny day!
I was really surprised at how little infrastructure there was surrounding the actual river, so many cities we have visited are deliberately located on a river / on the water and their designs reflect this (nice houses, restaurants, higher prices) but this really was not the case in Kyoto.
Our next, highly anticipated, destination was the Nishiki Market (slightly north of Kyoto Station).
This market was really fun! The roof was covered in beautiful stained glass and the lane way was lined with Japanese lanterns. Most importantly, there was delicious smelling food everywhere!
We decided to go on our own little food tour of Nishiki Market.
Food 1: tako tamago
This is candid baby octopus stuffed with a quail egg - Michael did not like it but I thought it was pretty tasty!
Food 2 (right): dango.
These are sweet Japanese dumplings, they are really soft and covered in a sticky, sweet soy sauce - delish!
Food 3: Budock and red peppers.
This was kind of strange, I had to Google burdock, apparently it's some kind of plant.
Food 4: Cheese and some kind of plum related vegetable.
I have forgotten the exact name but it tasted alright!
Food 5 (top left): tempura eel.
This sounds gross but was really nice and pretty must tasted like fish.
Food 6: prawn skewers.
Nothing too out of the ordinary about this - they put on some yummy sauce though!
After indulging in these very unique delicacies, we walked home and since it had been a really busy few days in Kyoto it was time to relax for the evening!
As I sit in Tokyo airport writing this post, I am really sorry to be leaving Japan! All of the places we have visited have been so much food, the food has been incredibly, the people have been friendly and helpful and everything has been so efficient!
We have had a wonderful holiday and I wish it didn't have to end so soon - I am already planning the next one ;-)
